Susan de Sola

I am very sad indeed to hear that Susan de Sola, whose witty poems livened many issues of Snakeskin, has died.

Here is my favourite among her Snakeskin poems:

Punks

Ellipsis signals… hesitation, and exclamation, excitation!
To balance loads, a comma tows. To rehash — we hire a dash.
Capitals Lead and Emphasize, dwarfing letters half their size.
The sweet and small apostrophe averts plural catastrophes.

Punctilious, the blunt full stop is grammar’s tireless traffic cop.
The brackets (sanitation guys) enclose just what a phrase denies.
Quotation marks with tongs suspend the words you do not “comprehend”.
Should you desire to inquire, mark with question’s twisty gyre.
For heavy lifting take in hand a squat & muscled ampersand.
@ points to a virtual place, oils the wheels of cyberspace.

Humble marks of punctuation serve in every situation.
Every stroke, or well-struck key compounds their abject slavery.
Unpaid labourers for the word, couriers and serfs unheard;
If un-tethered from their master, it may intimate disaster.
If gathered in a restive mob, they will disdain to do their job.
Collectively a motley crew, they go on strike, and shout @()&! you!

We shall miss her greatly. Our thoughts are with her family.

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